Tuesday, 31 May 2016

“I wrote the song ‘When Will I Return?’ specifically for [my wife] Jennifer Gira to sing. It’s a tribute to her strength, courage, and resilience in the face of a deeply scarring experience she once endured, and that she continues to overcome daily.”

With an enormous effort and the help of many friends we have put together this compilation, featuring the vast majority of the projects John Murphy was involved with – whether as a solo musician, contributor, full band member or session musician. Carefully curated and compiled, it follows the chronology of his career, starting with his high school band MANDRIX and following through all the way to his last studio recordings with LAST DOMINION LOST.A major part of this compilation are tracks featuring John himself, a treasure of yet unreleased recordings with ASSOCIATES, SHINING VRIL, KRANG, KRANK, BROWNING MUMMERY, KNIFELADDER, SOOTERKIN FLESH, BLOOD AND IRON, WERTHAM, FORESTA DI FERRO and GERECHTIGKEITS LIGA, as well as rare collaborative tracks with LUSTMORD, NEWS, WHIRLYWIRLD, HUGO KLANG, MAA, ORCHESTRA OF SKIN AND BONE, SLUB, DUMB AND THE UGLY, VHRIL, BORDEL MILITAIRE and THE WALKING KORPSES. John Murphy’s performances can also be heard on exclusive live recordings of BLOOD AXIS, SPK, WHITEHOUSE, NAEVUS, NIKOLAS SCHRECK, MY FATHER OF SERPENTS & DISCIPLES OF NONE and MANDRIX, while newly recorded personal dedications (partially making use of John Murphy recordings) come from OF THE WAND AND THE MOON, DIE WEISSE ROSE, GENOCIDE ORGAN, ANDREW KING and DAVID E. WILLIAMS. Last but not least there are his last live and studio recordings from March & May 2015 with THE GRIMSEL PATH, ZEENA SCHRECK and his last main band LAST DOMINION LOST.

Tuesday, 24 May 2016

Tracklist:
Barbarians
The Delaney
Heart of the Matter
Horrorshow
Fame and Fortune
Boys in the Band
The Milkman's Horse
What Katie Did
Anthem for Doomed Youth
The Man Who Would Be King
You're My Waterloo
Gunga Din
Can't Stand Me Now
Death on the Stairs
Time for Heroes
The Good Old Days
Encore:
La Marseillaise
(Claude-Joseph Rouget de l'Isle cover) (accapella)
Music When the Lights Go Out
Up the Bracket
What a Waster
Don't Look Back Into the Sun / Tell the King

Erich Consemüller, Marcel Breuer and his "harem" (from left to right: Marta Erps-Breuer, Katt Both and Ruth Hollos-Consemüller), ca. 1927Weimar Classics Foundation
The photo, taken by Consemüller, a student and photographer at the Bauhaus, captures the junior master Marcel Breuer around 1927. The title of the picture refers to the women standing next to him as Breuer’s ‘harem’. The women appear self-confident, with cool gazes and tousled shocks of short hair, and in modern dress. Marcel Breuer is looking at his companions sceptically, with his arms crossed. These are ‘my’ women?!
The title expresses the precise opposite of what the photo itself shows – the modernity, emancipation, equality, or even superiority, of the women in it. The actual date of the photo is hard to judge from their haircuts and clothing. It could just as well have been made in the 1980s, when women’s emancipation was reaching new heights.
Marcel Breuer is looking at the Bauhaus women disconcertedly, with a distanced gaze and a dismissive posture. From 1925 to 1928, Breuer headed the carpentry workshop at the Bauhaus as a junior master. The women shown include Breuer’s wife Martha Erps (left) and Ruth Hollós, the wife of the photographer. The architect Katt Both is standing in the middle. The viewer is caught by the penetrating gazes of Both and Erp. Ruth Hollós-Consemüller, by contrast, seems to be suppressing laughter as she looks towards the photographer (her husband). The photo’s title may possibly have been given to it when they were examining the final product later and someone jokingly remarked that the women were apparently Breuer’s ‘harem’. But what is the role played by Marcel Breuer in the harem? Is he its sultan/patriarch or eunuch/superintendent? In the role-play, Breuer seems to be looking at the women to check that they are properly spruced up. Erich Consemüller’s photo once again reflects the modern basic feeling and relaxed fun that were characteristic of the Bauhaus.ViaMarcel Breur & the WomenofBauhaus

Sunday, 22 May 2016

The other day I found this excellent recording on an old hard drive with absolutely no recollection of ever hearing it before or indeed where I got it from.I remember at the time being somewhat pissed off that Scratch and Adrian were only doing the one show in Sydney and not coming down here to Melbourne as I think Adrian's previous working visit was the Audio Active/Tackhead/Mark Stewart & The Maffia 'Out of Control' tour that Mambo promoted in the mid nineties.I recorded the Melbourne Zu-Zu's gig which I must try and grab out of storage one day.This is a couple of hours well spentReviewPhotographsGet the full recordingHERE

Sunday, 15 May 2016

Hillsborough is an in-depth, moving account of Britain's worst sporting disaster, in which 96 men, women and children were killed, hundreds injured and thousands traumatised. Beginning with that fateful day, 15 April 1989, the film details the horror of the tragedy, told through the experiences of those directly involved: fans, survivors, family members and police officers. Many speak publicly for the first time.
It captures the horror of the crush on the terraces, revealing the prejudices held by the police towards football fans. It exposes the police commanders' abject failure in leadership as the tragedy unfolded, and their deceit and determination to deflect responsibility for their failures in crowd management onto those who survived.
The documentary exposes the lack of dignity shown to bereaved families as they arrived in Sheffield to identify their loved ones laid out in body bags on a gymnasium floor. It considers the impact of the orchestrated vilification of fans in the media and, as a consequence, their public condemnation. By interviewing those involved, it recounts the 27-year campaign for justice fought on behalf of the 96 who died

Here's Mark's review of 'Road Series'. More of Hugo's writing can be found here.It's funny I used to go and see The Wreckery when I first came out to Australia in the mid eighties but I never really followed his career. Got to say I am very impressed with his writing and in fact even went down to my local bookshop to order Road Series after reading the review

Tuesday, 3 May 2016

A mix of musical styles though predominantly north African.
After opening aptly on this Sunday morning with Baaba Maal's 'Call to Prayer' we find ourselves 'tranceported' by music from both the mountains and medinas of Maroc, by the psychedelic sounds coming from the Congo in the mid seventies and by the present-time desert blues of Tinariwen and Group Inerane.
From Algeria by way of Paris, London and New York to the Ju-Ju lands of Nigeria.
1. Baaba Maal - Call To Prayer
2. African Head Charge - God Is Great
3. Akure Wall - Oyindamola
4. Okay Temiz - East Breeze
5. The Invaders of The Heart - Bomba
6. Rachid Taha - Barra Barra
7. Group Inerane - Kuni Majagani
8. Tinariwen - Cler Achel
9. King Sunny Ade - Ja Funmi
10. Joujouka with Ornette Coleman - Snippet #1
11. Maleem Mahmoud Ghania w/ Pharaoh Sanders - Mahraba
12. Gnawa Music of Marrakesh - Toura Toura Tour Kelilah No. 2
13. Joujouka with Ornette Coleman - Snippet #2
14. Udokotela Shange Namajah - Sobabamba (We Will Get Them)
15. Le Super Borgou de Parakou - Congolaise Benin Ye
16. Basokin ft. Mi Amor - Malume
Originally posted on this blog seven and a half years ago with a slight reworking this morningIf this compilation doesn't want to make you dance barefoot under the sky then you are already dead